Thunder Force II
Sega Genesis
Nostalgia Factor:
When I was a kid, Thunder Force II just kind of magically showed up in my Sega Genesis collection. It was never a game I knew about. Didn’t ask for it for Christmas. Didn’t want it for my birthday. Didn’t rent it. Didn’t buy it with my own money. It just kind of… showed up one day. I’m guessing it was given to me as a gift from a well-meaning family member. It was probably plucked out of a bargain bin and they thought the box looked cool, so they got it for me.
And hey, I’m thankful to them for that. Despite this genre of game being not my cup of team, I had a good time with Thunder Force II and it became the one and only shoot ‘em up in my Genesis library. I have some fun memories of playing this game with my stepbrother Kyle and easting Boston Baked Beans as we played. I generally don’t like and don’t eat Boston Baked Beans, so whenever I do give them a try they always make me think back to this game.
Anyway, I ended up trading in or giving away my entire Genesis collection when I moved onto the 32/64 bit era of consoles, and Thunder Force II was one of those casualties. I haven’t given this game much thought in the 20 plus years since then. Well, except for when I eat Boston Baked Beans of course.
That changed a few weeks ago when I saw a post about it on Facebook. Immediately memories of this game came crashing back to me, and I knew I had to come back to it and review it for this blog. Would it be as good as my memory said it was? Well, not really. But read on for the full details.
Story:
This game has a story? All I remember from this game as a kid is flying around and shooting stuff, and that’s even with the game’s instruction manual in my possession. Well, I don’t have the manual as an adult and nothing is really explained through in-game story sequences, so I have nothing to report back to you. And you know what? It doesn’t matter. You don’t need a story for a game like this.
I suppose I could go on to this game’s wiki page and supply you with that info, but my philosophy has always been “if it ain’t explained in the game itself, I’m not explaining it here.” This game is a prime example of that philosophy.
Gameplay:
Thunder Force II is an interesting mix of top-down shooter stages and side-scrolling shooter stages. The majority of the game seems to take place from the top-down perspective, so we’ll talk about that first. You can move your ship in every direction. Controls tend to be crisp and responsive but if I do have one complaint it is that you move too fast and things often appear suddenly on the edge of the screen and kill you before you have a chance to react or defend yourself. This becomes painfully apparent on the underground stage where you have to go through tight rock tunnels, but you can’t see more than half a screen length in front of you. You go whipping through these tunnels WAY too fast, and if you even so much as scrape against the rock you die. This is a very frustrating stage. The final stage is also a major pain in the ass for a very similar reason.
Anywho, now that I am done complaining I’ll explain how these top-down stages work. You have a standard “shoot straight forward” attack that you use to shoot flying foes that are coming after you, but you’ll notice that you also have a line of shots that hit the ground in front of you as well. Scattered throughout these top-down levels are a predetermined number of bases you need to destroy. You need to hit these bases with your ground attack to destroy them. This often requires precision aiming and perfect timing. Destroy the bases, you complete the level and move on to the next stage.
This isn’t as easy as it sounds, though, as flying enemies are constantly swarming you and trying to take you down. As if that wasn’t enough, there are enemies on the ground as well that fire barrages of bullets at you as fly by. You are under CONSTANT assault in this game, from every direction. This is a one-hit death game too so be prepared to die quite often. The good news is that these enemies drop power-ups aplenty. These power-ups mainly include weapon upgrades but there are also other things you can pick up like extra lives and temporary invisibility shields. As you collect these weapon upgrades you can switch back and forth between them – but be forewarned, if you die you lose them all and go back to your default pea shooter weapon until you find another upgrade. Which, given the rate at which enemies drop them in this game, won’t be long.
Before we move on to the side-scrolling stages, I have to point out that these top-down levels are often set up in a maze-like fashion. Barricades, energy shields, rock formations, and the like are always getting in your way and making you explore alternative routes in order to seek out the bases you need to destroy.
The side-scrolling levels are pretty straightforward. If you’ve played literally any other shooter in the genre, you’ll know how these work. The stages auto scroll. You’re on the left side of the screen. Enemies pop up on the right. You’ve got flying enemies, crawling enemies, wall mounted turrets, barricades, all kinds of things constantly coming your way. These stages typically end with a boss battle. Beat the boss, beat the stage.
One hit will still kill you in the side-scrolling stages so again be prepared to die a lot. One stage in particular moves really fast and throws a ton of obstacles at you with not a lot of time for you to react. I hate that stage. Overall, however, I find these stages to be a bit more fun than their overhead counterparts.
Graphics:
You have to realize that this game came out in 1989, when the NES was still in its prime. I’m sure that Thunder Force II looked absolutely amazing by the standards of that era. By today’s standards it obviously isn’t much to look at. One thing I’ll say is that even though this game shows its age, it doesn’t look bad. Games that are 32 years old could easily look ugly or just flat out terrible by today’s standards. While Thunder Force II might look very basic and primitive, it is definitely not ugly by any stretch of the imagination.
Sound:
This is one of those rare games where I like the sound effects more than the music. The music is fine. I couldn’t care less about it. Generic, standard early Genesis stuff. Whatever. It's not terrible but it is not fantastic either. But the sound effects! The second I started playing this game, the sound effects hit me right in the nostalgic feelings. They’re so distinct and so instantly identifiable with this game, it’s great. I wish I could find a way to better explain this to you but it is hard to put into words.
Overall:
I’m a little conflicted here because while I liked this game a lot as a kid, I’m having a hard time overlooking its flaws as an adult. The number one flaw being that the game is unfairly frustrating at times. I like a good challenge but I also like a fair challenge. There were so many times in this game I was killed very cheaply, without being given an opportunity to react or defend myself. This happened all game long. I was getting SO irritated by it after a while. Back in the day I would just play this game so many times I’d have everything memorized, but as an adult I simply don’t have the time for that anymore.
The top-down stages are an excersize in patience. Between the cheap deaths and the wonky maze-like level structure (where I was constantly getting lost) it’s a surprise this game was able to grab me as much as it did when I was a kid. I can easily see myself being like “yeah no” when I first played this game, and putting it back on the shelf, never playing it again. But that’s just how things were back then. I didn’t have an unlimited selection of video games at my fingertips. I had like fifteen Genesis cartridges. I had to play what I had, or not play anything at all!
Which leads me to my conundrum. I thought this game was okay playing it again as an adult. Like I said, shoot ‘em ups are not my thing. Still, I had a decent time with it. But would I have had that same decent time if I didn’t have nostalgic memories of this game, if I was playing it just now in the year 2021 for the first time? I don’t think so. I think I’d probably have thrown my hands up and said “this game is not fun.”
Sigh.
So you can see my dilemma. I think a C- is a bit too low, if only for nostalgia's sake. C would be average, and this game leans either slightly above or slightly below average in my books depending on my mood. But the D range is definitely too low. This game isn’t THAT bad. So C it is, I guess.
Will I ever come back and play Thunder Force II again? Would I recommend it to anyone else?
The answer to both of those questions is no, and I think that tells you all you really need to know. This game has nostalgia to thank for this fairly generous grade I'm about to give it.
Final Score:
C
Some other earlier Sega Genesis games you might enjoy:
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